The present invention relates generally to the field of artificial intelligence and, more particularly, to the use of artificial intelligence to provide automated customer service.
As the Internet has evolved into a viable commercial medium, more businesses have developed Web sites to market and sell their products and/or services electronically. As businesses grow, call center and e-mail traffic may continue to escalate. This has resulted in customer service being a relatively fast growing segment of the customer relations management (CRM) market. It may, however, be expensive to provide numerous sales/customer service representatives to handle customer queries through call centers and/or e-mail systems. Hoping to deflect escalating call center and/or e-mail service expenses while enhancing the customer experience, businesses may turn to self-service solutions. Thus, there exists a need for improved customer service systems, such as Web self-service solutions, that may allow businesses to increase operating efficiencies and turn customer service into a revenue-generating channel.